Open the dropdown choose Mobile App and Choose Receive Notifications for verification option

Click the Set Up option. After some processing, it will show a QR code

Now it is time to download and install the Microsoft Authenticator App on mobile (Android and iOS)

Open the app and from the top right menu, choose Add Account – Work or School Account

Scan the QR code

Now it will register the account on the mobile and you will see a 6 digit code which keeps changing every 30 seconds (does not require internet connection)

Now click Next on the browser side.

You will now receive an notification on the mobile phone. Choose the Approve option.

Now the MFA is configured.Please note, the displayed 6 digit number is NOT REQUIRED to be entered anywhere. This is because, we are using the Receive Notification for Verification option.

In the next step, it will ask another number for verification in case you lose your mobile. Add a different number here. Click Next.

Special password for Outlook and Skype for Business

Outlook client and Skype FB does not support MFA. Your regular account password will stop working as soon as MFA is configured. Outlook will keep asking for your password and your regular password will not work. Now you have to use a special password.

That is the one shown to you in the next dialog as Step 4. Copy that password and use the same password it for Outlook and SFB. Use one password for laptop and one for desktop / mobile, etc.

If you use any ActiveSync client on mobile, that will also require a password. Technically you can use this password, but it is better to create another one.

How to do that? Go to Portal.Office.com, click on your photo, go to My account – Security – You will see a Create App Passwords option. Create a new one from there and use it.

User: Regular Office 365 MFA login

Now onwards, MFA is enabled. Now login using two steps

Step 1: Login using UID PWD as usual.

Step 2: Immediately, you will receive the Approval notification on mobile.

Congratulations

Chances of your account being hacked reduced by 99% now.

Share this with everyone you love and make their digital lives also safer.

]]>https://efficiency365.com/2018/11/06/enable-office-365-mfa-and-be-safe/feed/017580Internet speed test with Fast.comhttps://efficiency365.com/2018/10/01/internet-speed-test-with-fast-com/
https://efficiency365.com/2018/10/01/internet-speed-test-with-fast-com/#respondMon, 01 Oct 2018 00:10:49 +0000https://efficiency365.com/?p=17564Very short blog. Speedtest.net or dslreports.com are commonly used for checking Internet speed. Here is https://fast.com as a quick and ad-free alternative. Try it out. I find it to be the best Internet speed test out there. It is created by Netflix. They wanted users to have a quick way to check bandwidth with no … Continue reading Internet speed test with Fast.com→

]]>Very short blog. Speedtest.net or dslreports.com are commonly used for checking Internet speed. Here is https://fast.com as a quick and ad-free alternative. Try it out. I find it to be the best Internet speed test out there.

It is created by Netflix. They wanted users to have a quick way to check bandwidth with no bloatware around it. It also performs what is called as a “Loaded latency” test – a modified Ping test.

Click Settings to adjust how long it tests the speed. This is useful if you expect fluctuation in the speed over time.

]]>https://efficiency365.com/2018/10/01/internet-speed-test-with-fast-com/feed/017564Macros Knowledge Packhttps://efficiency365.com/2018/09/04/macros-knowledge-pack/
https://efficiency365.com/2018/09/04/macros-knowledge-pack/#respondTue, 04 Sep 2018 13:30:32 +0000https://efficiency365.com/?p=17503Here is a list of Macros I have written for various Office tools. Usually we feel that any repetitive task requires a macro. That is a wrong concept. Typically, repetitive tasks indicate that the method you are using is inefficient. Usually there is an efficient way to do the same job – which eliminates the … Continue reading Macros Knowledge Pack→

]]>Here is a list of Macros I have written for various Office tools. Usually we feel that any repetitive task requires a macro. That is a wrong concept. Typically, repetitive tasks indicate that the method you are using is inefficient. Usually there is an efficient way to do the same job – which eliminates the repetition.

Macros should be written to create capabilities which you need but the product does not offer that feature. All the macros described below fall in this category.

Macros and related articles

Excel – Amount to Words macro
A comprehensive macro to convert numbers to Words.
Available only for Indian Rupees. 16 configurable parameters. Extremely flexible.

Excel – Macro to Explode Pivot table by Filter Field Items
Very useful to create separate files based upon items in the filter area of pivot tables. The output is a working pivot table with filtered data only. This way you give the ability to use full features of pivot and prevent removal of filter to maintain confidentiality.

Excel – Paste as Pivot – New way to use Pivot table data
Creates bulk GetPivotData statements based upon selected cells in pivot data (value) area. Very useful for accurately referring to pivot values outside the pivot table for creating custom reports.

]]>Recently a customer asked me to compare SharePoint vs. Teams. Customer found my reply clear and concise explanation of the key points. Therefore, I am posting it as an article. (Reading time 4 min)

SharePoint vs. Teams – what to compare

Technically Teams uses SharePoint behind the scenes. Hence, a technical comparison will not be very useful. What we need to do is compare them functionally SharePoint has been around for 17 years – for improving teamwork and collaboration. Teams was launched 1 year back – with exactly the same objectives in mind.

SharePoint

The user can decide what type of content is to be shared and with whom

Here are common type of SharePoint web sites which can be created

List – for storing data

Document library – for storing files

Shared Calendar, Shared Task list

And many more

Unfortunately, SharePoint did NOT make sharing easy for users

Why not? Because IT never allowed users to create web sites using SharePoint

They put governance, rules and processes around creation of SharePoint sites

Due to this, when a user had to share something with others, the site would be created hours (or more realistically, days) later – defeating the purpose

Many teams got busy creating intranets and business applications by programming on top of SharePoint. This distraction is futile because it distracts energies from the primary purpose of simpler sharing and teamwork.

In short, nobody used it properly

SharePoint is a great product. It is the unnecessary IT control around it which led to its failure as a teamwork tool. Of course there are pockets of success which are primarily attributed to passion of specific individuals or teams. But it never got institutionalized in the way it was intended to.

Teams vs SharePoint

Teams is SharePoint – under the hood

When a Team is created, these things happen automatically

New SharePoint Site is created

Team members are given permissions

File storage is created

Shared OneNote notebook is also created automatically

The best part is that IT is no longer involved!

Teams does one more thing which SharePoint does not do.

It moves communication from Inbox to Teams

That way, team members do not have to go to Inbox to discuss about a project

So, finally, users can share whatever they want with other users.

That is called Teamwork or Collaboration

In short, Teams brings people, files, notes, conversations and tasks together – one project at a time.

OneDrive vs. SharePoint

OneDrive is also SharePoint.

As you know, SharePoint is used to create web sites

Sites can store various things like documents, data, tasks, appointments and more.

With SharePoint, every user got a special site called My Site

My Site has a place to store my documents (a document library) – files which you would typically store in My Documents folder on the local PC / Laptop

This document library was renamed (rather re-branded) as OneDrive

OneDrive is not just a special brand. It gets a very special treatment.

Each person’s OneDrive is 1 TB of space (at the time of writing this article… Sep 2018)

Why the brand name called OneDrive?

Because it is ONE place for ONE person to store files which always have ONE copy

ONE, ONE, ONE = ONEdrive

Why ONE copy? Because you can share the link rather than send it as an email attachment

This works even for persons outside your organization

Rather than sending multiple copies of the file to other people, it makes sense to keep ONE copy of the file and let other people come to the file (and edit it).

Where to store a new file?

Now you have three places to potentially store a new file you just created. Is that called empowerment or confusion?

Without the right guidance it leads to confusion rather than clarity.

Here is the guidance about where to store a new file:

If the file is primarily handled / owned by you, save it to OneDrive and share it with relevant persons. Remember that YOU can control who can view the file and who can edit it.

If you would have saved the file to a departmental share, it belongs to the SharePoint site for that department. If you do not have one, then store it on OneDrive.

Is this file related to a time-bound project where you are working closely with a specific set of people? Then create a team in the Teams app and store the file there.

Delve

Finally, there is another animal called Delve. Here is what it does.

Delve does not DO anything actively. Delve is passive in that sense.

It just looks at what you are doing and gives you some analysis

Delve tells you who are the people you work with frequently and which documents are being used

It also shows you what your colleagues are working on (only for shared files where you have the permission)

That is all Delve does for individual user.

But Delve is also available at the organizational level – It is called Workplace Analytics

This uses data of all users working with each other to generate analysis

Using Workplace Analytics you can see which department works with which other department

Which people are more loaded and others communicate less and so on

This analysis can be used to find ways to improve inter-departmental collaboration

Saturday, 13 Oct 2018 9 am to 5 pm, Mumbai

Amazing Value

Full, 6-hour video recording of the entire session which can be used to train more people internally

Email support for 2 months

Exercises with sample files

Online, 2-hour follow up session

Work with your own data

You must bring your own laptop. Additional software needs to be installed BEFORE arriving for the event.

Power BI Workshop Content

Disadvantages / Pitfalls of data analysis in traditional Excel

Understanding the Data Model

Good vs Bad data

Good data checklist

Data Import and Cleanup

Web data import

Combining data from folder files

Combining data from sheets

Eliminating VLOOKUP

Handling millions of rows

Data modeling

Creating Relationships

Creating Interactive Dashboards

Grouping

Time Intelligence

Introduction to DAX

Power BI portal

Choosing the right visualization

3D maps using Power Map

Sharing reports

English language Q&A

Bookmarks and storytelling

Custom visuals

Who should Attend?

Anyone who spends lot of time with Excel creating reports, charts and analyzing data.

If you use any other BI tools like Tableu, Qlik, BO, Cognos, etc.

If you work extensively with Pivot Tables

Who should NOT attend?

If you want to learn DAX language, specifically, you should NOT attend this workshop.
This workshop is designed for people who have no exposure to Power BI in the past. The objective is to migrate them from the painful manual Excel based processes and legacy charts to the interactive data visualizations and dashboards using Power BI.

Learn from the Guru

Dr. Nitin Paranjape has coached over 330,000+ professionals across 18 countries. He is recognized as the Most Valuable Professional by Microsoft, for 15 years. Dr. Nitin is a coveted speaker with a unique humorous and motivating style of teaching. Detailed profile

]]>https://efficiency365.com/2018/08/31/power-bi-workshop-2/feed/017475Power BI Seconds to Durationhttps://efficiency365.com/2018/08/31/power-bi-seconds-to-duration/
https://efficiency365.com/2018/08/31/power-bi-seconds-to-duration/#respondFri, 31 Aug 2018 02:16:41 +0000https://efficiency365.com/?p=17489While working with Power BI we often need to convert Seconds to Duration. This is easily done in Excel just by applying the formatting code “HH:MM:SS”. Unfortunately in Power Query or DAX, this is not possible. Here is the solution: Seconds to Duration: Power Query Power Query also means Get and Transform in Excel or … Continue reading Power BI Seconds to Duration→

]]>While working with Power BI we often need to convert Seconds to Duration. This is easily done in Excel just by applying the formatting code “HH:MM:SS”. Unfortunately in Power Query or DAX, this is not possible. Here is the solution:

Seconds to Duration: Power Query

Power Query also means Get and Transform in Excel or Query Editor in Power BI Desktop.

We have a column with seconds in it. The data type is Whole Number.

To convert it to duration – like D:HH:MM:SS we have to change the data type. This is done by adding a custom column. Add column – Custom Column. Change the column name to whatever you want and add this formula.

#duration is an intrinsic function. Four parameters: days, hours, minutes, seconds. Notice the ABC 123 data type next to the column name. This means “ANY” datatype in Query Editor. Change that to the Duration data type.

Power BI Desktop Import

When you import this data into Power BI Desktop, the duration value is converted to a decimal value – which appears to defeat the purpose. But wait … there is more.

Now, apply Time data type to it and choose hh:mm: ss Format.

Finally, you what you want: Seconds to Duration.

Yes. More complex compared to Excel. But that is how it is.

Disadvantage of Seconds to Duration conversion

Unfortunately, this My Duration cannot be plotted on a chart.

If you want to plot it, you will have to use the original number of seconds (the Sec column in this case). The duration can be used for text display in tooltips or tabular / matrix reports.

Power Query Formulas

You can also add separate columns for days, hours, minutes and seconds by using simple formulas. The Duration function allows you to get individual component from the #duration. For example, you can get hours from the duration using this formula:

=Duration.Hours( #duration(0,0,0, [Sec]) )

DAX formula

If you have a column containing seconds as a number, you can extract the Hours, Minutes, Seconds from it using simple mathematics.

]]>https://efficiency365.com/2018/08/31/power-bi-seconds-to-duration/feed/017489Store files in Office 365 – Best Practiceshttps://efficiency365.com/2018/08/20/where-to-store-files/
https://efficiency365.com/2018/08/20/where-to-store-files/#commentsMon, 20 Aug 2018 08:50:00 +0000https://efficiency365.com/?p=17446(Reading time 3 min ) This article provides concise instructions on where to store files when you have Office 365 E3 or above in your organization. There are multiple places and apps within Office 365 where files can be stored. But there is no clarity about which file goes where. Here is a simple guide … Continue reading Store files in Office 365 – Best Practices→

]]>(Reading time 3 min ) This article provides concise instructions on where to store files when you have Office 365 E3 or above in your organization. There are multiple places and apps within Office 365 where files can be stored. But there is no clarity about which file goes where. Here is a simple guide for everyone.

Store files: Newly created file

If you are creating the file and you are going to use it for your work, store it in OneDrive for Business. Create folders to store files to simplify finding the files in future.
If you need inputs from others, just share the link with them. Note that we can now share files with external users (including those with Gmail or Outlook type of personal email ids).

If the file is specific to a time-bound, cross-functional project or initiative, create a place for storing the file using Teams. Teams allows you to handle multiple projects. For each project there are channels. Default channel is called General. You can create more channels as required. Each channel has a place to store related files. Store the file in the correct channel. Ensure that your team members also store project specific files here.
Files stored in Teams can also be shared with external parties by adding them as members of the Team.

If the file was earlier stored in a departmental server share then you should store these files in a SharePoint site.
DO NOT use OneDrive for Business OR Teams for storing departmental files.
Why? Because OneDrive is for ONE person. That person can leave. These files can then be assigned to the new person who takes up that role.
Teams are used for time-bound projects. When the project is finished, the files are archived and the Teams site is no longer used.
Departmental data, on the other hand, is eternal. Department does not have an end date. Department does not resign. That is why departmental data should be stored in SharePoint.

Store Files: Existing file

If it is opened from OneDrive, Teams, Groups or SharePoint store it there itself.

If it a file which you opened form local laptop (or desktop PC),
Store it in one of the recommended places as discussed above.

Related articles

Older guide for storing files on Office 365 is here.
Learn more about OneDrive for Business here.
Explore Teams usage scenarios here.

]]>Grouping means combining multiple items into fewer items. It helps us consolidate and summarize things to understand them at a higher level of granularity. Let us see how to use Power BI Grouping done easily and quickly. This is useful for Ageing Analysis, Bin or Bucket Analysis, week / custom date range analysis.

Creating Power BI Grouping

Power BI provides a simple and consistent mechanism of performing grouping for numbers, text and dates. All that you need to do is Right Click on the field name and choose Create Group.

Two types of grouping is possible. Bins based or List based.

List based Power BI Grouping

For text data we can only group based upon the List type. It basically allows you to select two or more items and group them into a single category. Ungrouped items are shown as Other category. For example here, we have divided the Segments into Risky and Safe.

Of course, if a new segment appears in future data, it will go under Others. You will need to edit groupings to repair such issues. This type of grouping should be used only if there are few groups and the data (in this case, segments) do not change often.

If there are too many categories and they change often, it may make more sense to have a separate table containing two columns – the segment and the classification. This table can then have a relationship on the Segment column and provide a more flexible and easier to maintain method of grouping.

Group icon

The newly created Group is added as a separate field with a special icon – which looks like two overlapping boxes.

Bins based Power BI Grouping

For numeric values, bin based analysis is more common. For example, for payments overdue, we usually perform ageing analysis by 30,60,90, 120 days overdue. This can be done easily using Bin based Power BI Grouping

This gives us ageing analysis easily.

Ad-hoc grouping of numbers by using the List method is also available if required, but it is not very useful if there are too many numeric values. If there are few numeric values, ad-hoc grouping will be useful. For example, if you have just 10 unique values like a score, we can use List based grouping to classify them into low, medium and high categories.

However, if there are too many numeric values, it is better to create a separate table to categorize numbers.

Dates based Power BI Grouping

Dates based grouping is available by default in Power BI. When you add a date type of column to a visualization, it automatically becomes broken down into Year, Quarter, Month and Days.

Bins can be created by specifying the size (as we saw with numbers)

This is very useful if you want weekly groups. By default, Power BI does not give you weekly breakdown. But if you group by days and choose bin size of 7, you get weekly grouping.

Number of bins

By default we create bins by specifying its bin or bucket size. But we can also use another method – by specifying the number of bins. This is very simple. The actual min and max of the column is found out and the range is divided into specified number of bins.

Custom bins require separate tables

Any custom bins require a separate approach.

For example, we want ageing from 0 to 30 and 31 to 45 then 46 to 90… this type of custom bin analysis requires you to create a separate table and then do the math by add a calculated column.

Similarly, for custom date grouping like custom weeks, calendar vs fiscal years and so on, we need a custom date table.

]]>https://efficiency365.com/2018/06/08/power-bi-grouping/feed/017359Three Time Zones in Outlookhttps://efficiency365.com/2018/06/01/three-time-zones-in-outlook/
https://efficiency365.com/2018/06/01/three-time-zones-in-outlook/#commentsFri, 01 Jun 2018 15:02:55 +0000https://efficiency365.com/?p=17330Simple but useful stuff. Now, Outlook supports Three Time Zones in the Calendar. To set the time zones, right click on the time display in Calendar and choose Change Time Zone… or go to File – Options – Calendar – Time Zones. If you work with customers or your own teams globally, this can be … Continue reading Three Time Zones in Outlook→

]]>Simple but useful stuff. Now, Outlook supports Three Time Zones in the Calendar. To set the time zones, right click on the time display in Calendar and choose Change Time Zone… or go to File – Options – Calendar – Time Zones. If you work with customers or your own teams globally, this can be a very useful feature.

How to select Three Time Zones in Outlook

One time zone is always shown by default – that is the current time zone – as per Windows regional settings. You can choose two more time zones. Remember to specify labels which are short and clear. If you use wrong labels, you will end up confusing yourself.

Three Time Zones were added in May 2018. Since many years, Outlook supported only two time zones.

The time zones are visible in the Day, Week and Work Week view. In the month view, there is no place to show the time portion.

Suppose, I have three time zones set – India, Hong Kong and Australia. What to do when I am actually visiting HK? Simple. Click the Swap Time Zones button. This cycles the time zones. Choose the first time zone to be the place where you are. That’s it.
Remember to reset it to your home time zone when you return to your base location.

Choose the desired time slot display

By default, Outlook shows one-hour time slots. Depending upon your work profile, you can make it more detailed. You can go down to 5 minute granularity. This is useful if you are using Calendar for managing lots of related activities like organizing an event calendar or a training program schedule.

There is a special 6 minute time slot display – for legal and other consultants who are billed by the hour. For them, dividing the hour into 10 slots of 6 minutes each is easier for calculating their charges rather than dividing it into 12 slots of 5 minutes each!

Arrange a meeting based upon customer convenience

In another related feature, while creating a new appointment, you can see other time zones. Click the Time Zone button in the New Appointment window.

Select the customer time zone and schedule the appointment as per their convenience. When you save the Appointment, it is translated automatically into your base time zone.

Unfortunately, WHILE you are editing the appointment, you can only see the time in the target time zone. But it is still better than manually calculating time zone offsets.

Saturday, 26 May, 9 am to 5 pm, Mumbai

Amazing Value

Full, 6-hour video recording of the entire session which can be used to train more people internally

Email support for 2 months

Practice Exercises with sample files

Online, 2-hour follow up session

Work with your own data

You must bring your own laptop. Additional software needs to be installed BEFORE arriving for the event.

Power BI Workshop Content

Disadvantages / Pitfalls of data analysis in traditional Excel

Understanding the Data Model

Good vs Bad data

Good data checklist

Importing and cleaning up data using Power Query

Get and Transform features

Web data import and live refresh

Combining data from files in a folder

Combining data from multiple sheets

Eliminating the use of VLOOKUP

Large data handling using Power Pivot

Creating dashboards using Power View

Power BI Desktop usage scenarios

Power BI portal

Choosing the right visualization

3D maps using Power Map

Sharing reports

English language Q&A

Bookmarks and storytelling

Custom visuals

Who should Attend?

Anyone who spends lot of time with Excel creating reports, charts and analyzing data.

If you use any other BI tools like Tableu, Qlik, BO, Cognos, etc.

If you work extensively with Pivot Tables

Who should NOT attend?

If you want to learn DAX language, specifically, you should NOT attend this workshop.
This workshop is designed for people who have no exposure to Power BI in the past. The objective is to migrate them from the painful manual processes and legacy charts to the modern process of data visualization and interactive analysis using Power BI.

Learn from the Guru

Dr. Nitin Paranjape has coached over 330,000+ professionals across 18 countries. He is recognized as the Most Valuable Professional by Microsoft, for 15 years. Dr. Nitin is a coveted speaker with a unique humorous and motivating style of teaching. Detailed profile